README.md

nih-repo-summary — Copilot CLI Skill

A GitHub Copilot CLI skill that generates a polished, one-page NIH funder-ready summary of any code repository. The summary is written for non-technical scientific audiences — program officers, grant reviewers, and NIH staff — not software developers.

The skill instructs Copilot to act as an observer only: it reads and reports but never modifies the repository.

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What It Produces

A well-formed markdown document (~1 page) with the following sections:

1. What Is This Project? — Plain-language description of the tool and the scientific problem it solves
2. Scientific Impact and Purpose — Bullet points connecting the software to research outcomes
3. How It Works (Non-Technical Overview) — Conceptual pipeline description, no jargon
4. Code Quality and Development Practices — Language choice, automation, testing, documentation, open licensing, and social coding practices
5. Recent Progress (Last Six Months) — Table of key advancements drawn from git history
6. Project Metrics — Quantitative table (commits, contributors, stars, forks, lines of code, license, etc.)
7. Principal Investigators / Authors — Named contributors with affiliations
8. Summary — Closing paragraph connecting the project to NIH's mission

The output is ready for direct conversion to PDF or HTML.

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Installation

This is a personal skill — once installed it is available in every project you open with Copilot CLI.

# Create the skills directory if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p ~/.copilot/skills/nih-repo-summary

# Download the skill file
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/seandavi/BiocBuildDB/main/.github/skills/nih-repo-summary/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.copilot/skills/nih-repo-summary/SKILL.md

Note: If you cloned this repository, you can also copy the file directly:

cp /path/to/repo/.github/skills/nih-repo-summary/SKILL.md \
   ~/.copilot/skills/nih-repo-summary/SKILL.md

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Usage

1. Start Copilot CLI in your target repository

cd /path/to/repository
copilot

2. Invoke the skill

You can call it explicitly by name:

Use the /nih-repo-summary skill to summarize this repository for NIH funders

Or describe what you want — Copilot will recognize the task and load the skill automatically:

Generate an NIH funder summary of this repo and save it to ~/Downloads/summary.md

3. Save the output

Copilot will offer to save the resulting markdown file. You can also specify a destination upfront:

Use the /nih-repo-summary skill to summarize this repo and save the result to ~/Downloads/myproject-nih-summary.md

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Skill Management Commands

Command	Description
/skills list	List all available skills
/skills reload	Reload skills without restarting (useful after installing mid-session)
/skills info	Show skill locations and details
/skills	Interactively enable or disable skills

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Requirements

• GitHub Copilot CLI installed and authenticated
• An active GitHub Copilot subscription
• The target repository available locally (the skill reads local files and git history)